Griffin expects 5 to 8 month recovery

Vikings cornerback Cedric Griffin said the recent operation he underwent to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee "went pretty well," and that his recovery period should be five to eight months.

Griffin suffered the injury playing on special teams during the opening kickoff of overtime in the Vikings' loss to the Saints in the NFC title game.

"The doctors and the trainers looked at it and there wasn't too much swelling and the surgery went pretty quick and easy, so everyone is pretty excited," Griffin told the Star Tribune's Sid Hartman. "Just based off what everyone says, [rehabilitation is] anywhere from five to eight months, so anywhere in that range. I'm looking more in the range of six months, so I'm definitely going to be getting busy this offseason."

Griffin, who has been at Winter Park doing rehab, could return before the regular season if the recovery period is six months. It is likely that Griffin will start training camp on the physically unable to perform list.

Asked about how he suffered the injury, Griffin told Hartman: "I didn't know what I did, but I knew I did something. When I was running down on kickoff, when I tried to make a cut, it just felt kind of numb instantly. So, I knew something was messed up."